Michael Feldman Blogs at Britannica Site
'Whad'Ya Know?' host builds 'Encyclopaedia Feldmanica' one post at a time

CHICAGO, March 30 /PRNewswire/ -- What does Michael Feldman know? Quite
a bit, it turns out, a fact now revealed online, as the popular radio host
doles out snippets of his vast store of learning at the Encyclopaedia
Britannica blog ( http://blogs.britannica.com ) every Friday.
Starting this month, Feldman weighs in weekly on such diverse topics as
art and aesthetics, nanotechnology, religious faith and historical figures
such as Freud, Magellan, Mary, Queen of Scots and Alexander the Great.
Every post will have the trademark wit that has made Feldman famous as host
of Public Radio International's "Whad'Ya Know?" ( http://www.notmuch.com ),
which airs nationally on Saturdays. Though he's best known for answering
the show's title question, "Not much, you?" Feldman in fact has a broad
intellectual reach that his Britannica blogs will aim to bring out.
But why would Michael Feldman want to blog at Britannica?
"I can publish Encyclopaedia Feldmanica!" he says. "Britannica empowers
me to riff on everything from a posteriori knowledge, that of experience as
opposed to a priori (starting with my conclusion), to Zywiec, the Milwaukee
of the Polish Carpathians, where Old Zywiec lager goes back 350 years
before Pabst earned his blue ribbon. It allows me to crochet string theory
in all 11 dimensions, to conjecture just where all the missing matter in
the universe might be, and make the convincing argument that Mozart,
Michael Jackson and Uncle Fester have a lot more in common than
conventional wisdom deigns."
Some of Feldman's posts are based on entries from "Glad You Asked:
Intriguing Names, Facts, and Ideas for the Curious-Minded," a collaboration
between Feldman and Britannica published recently by Triumph Books (
http://www.triumphbooks.com ). His collected posts can be found at
http://blogs.britannica.com/blog/main/author/mfeldman .
Feldman is one of dozens of interesting people, some famous, some
unknown, who post regularly on the Britannica blog, which calls itself "a
place for smart, lively conversations about a broad range of topics."
Launched last fall, it's grown in popularity and is now among the top one
percent of blogs ranked by Technorati.com. Frequent bloggers include former
Britannica editor-in-chief Robert McHenry, author and critic Gregory
McNamee, and writer and television fashion correspondent Bronwyn Cosgrave.
Britannica editors also step out from behind the curtain sometimes to post
on politics, science and literature. Former major-league baseball pitcher
Denny McLain, who won 31 games in 1968, recently posted his thoughts on the
Pete Rose story, and Pulitzer Prize-winning historian Joseph Ellis debated
Michael and Jana Novak of the American Enterprise Institute in a series of
blogs on the nature of the American Founding Fathers' religion.
About Encyclopaedia Britannica
Encyclopaedia Britannica, Inc. ( http://www.britannica.com ) is a
leader in reference and education publishing whose products can be found in
many media, from the Internet to cell phones to books. A pioneer in
electronic publishing since the early 1980s, the company still publishes
the 32-volume Encyclopaedia Britannica, along with services such as
Britannica Online School Edition and new printed products such as
Britannica Student Encyclopedia, available for purchase at Britannica's
online store (store.britannica.com). Britannica's editorial operation is
overseen by some of the world's most distinguished scholars, several of
them Nobel laureates. The company makes its headquarters in Chicago.